September 2017

Bannon’s Controversial Speech In Hong Kong Foretells Trump Visit To China

Garrett Dee
Ousted chief strategist to US president Donald Trump and current editor-in-chief of Breitbart news agency Steve Bannon arrived in Hong Kong last week to deliver a speech to CLSA Investment Forum, a Chinese-owned investment group headquartered in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is Bannon’s first major public speech since his forced resignation...
#19America and the Asia PacificInternationalSeptember 20178 min read

Rally Against ROC Constitution Held In Liberty Plaza By Pro-Taiwan Civil Society Groups

Brian Hioe
A demonstration to call for normalization of Taiwan’s international status was held at Liberty Plaza tonight, calling for the removal of Taiwan’s status as a “province” of China in the ROC constitution and the permanent connection of Taiwan and China enshrined in the ROC constitution through the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area...
EnglishSelf-DeterminationSeptember 2017Social Movements7 min read

New Food Labelling Regulations Fails To Address High Sugar Content In Taiwanese Food Products

Rob Mclaren
Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) recently issued a statement reminding vendors who want to label their products as health foods that the limit on free sugar content in registered health food products is 25 grams or 6 teaspoons per serving. But this ultimately does not reduce the issue of the high amount of sugar in Taiwanese food...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20177 min read

Continued Debates Over The Role Of Classical Chinese In Taiwan

Brian Hioe
The defeat of a recent push by language and literature scholars to reform the teaching of Chinese in Taiwan has had surprising implications. Namely, despite the defeat of a push by the Association for Taiwan Literature to reduce the amount of classical Chinese currently taught in Taiwanese, this drew comment from high-ranking Chinese government officials including An Fengshan of the Taiwan Affairs Office. It seems, then, that the debate over the teaching of classical Chinese in Taiwan has become significant enough to draw attention from China...
Arts and CultureEnglishLiterature and PoetrySeptember 20176 min read

Lee Ming-Che Trial Provokes Outrage, But What Now For Efforts To Secure His Release?

Brian Hioe
Outrage broken out in Taiwan with the appearance of detained Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-Che in Chinese courts yesterday. Lee pled guilty to “subverting state power” and undermining the authority of the CCP in attempting to encourage multi-party in democracy. But what now for efforts to secure Lee's release?...
EnglishSelf-DeterminationSeptember 2017Social Movements10 min read

Uncertainty Lingers As The Trial Of Lee Ming-che Commences

Garrett Dee
The Chinese government announced Wednesday September 6 that it would begin proceedings on the trial of Lee Ming-che, the Taiwanese democratic and human rights advocate who disappeared in March while attempting to cross the China-Macau border and who was later confirmed to have been taken prisoner by the central Chinese government. The announcement came in the form of a phone call to his wife, Lee Ching-yu, from a man name Zhang Zhongwei who claimed to be her husband’s state-appointed attorney...
EnglishSeptember 20176 min read